The ASU Art Museum is reviving 10 treasured works from its permanent collection for an exhibit honoring American Indian art.
The exhibit, which coincides with the American Indian Art Studies Association Conference in Scottsdale this week, will feature mixed-media pieces by renowned Native American artist and activist Juane Quick-To-See Smith today through Jan. 28.
"It's strong work by an artist with definite messages about her cultural heritage," said curator Jean Makin, who calls Smith a prominent and influential contemporary artist.
In her works, Smith discusses environmental, political and social issues using vibrant colors, layers of paint and drawing and American Indian petroglyphs to portray meaning.
In her works from the 1980s, for example, Smith used what she called "map colors" - or greens and pinks - to map out her physical journey to the Columbia River Basin as well as her life journey as an artist.
Those paintings were also about inhabited landscapes, Smith said.
"Europeans always refer to landscapes as uninhabited or wilderness ... there's no such thing as landscape that's empty," she said.
Smith said she draws her perspective from traditional American Indian religion.
"We believe that all of our nature is a great net, and we [humans] are just knots in the net," she said. "Europeans think that humans are something different than the animals ... and then they put them in steel boxes to protect them from this dirty little earth."
Because she believes humans are one with the Earth and other animals, Smith said threats to the environment often compel her to paint.
"It [the environment] gives me a lot to think about. I just hope I pass it on and let other people think about it, too," she said.
Art history senior Mili Choi said she finds Smith's style interesting and her impact powerful.
"I think students should see this. It stimulates your mind, it's something to do, and it's free," she said.
"Juane Quick-To-See Smith: Paintings and Drawings" will be on display in the Art Museum's multipurpose room starting today.
Smith will give a public guest lecture at noon Friday at the museum.
Reach the reporter at ann.censky@asu.edu.
